Dendritic Spine Morphology in Autism Spectrum Disorders
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Authors
Scurry, Alexandra
Issue Date
2011
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
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Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has become an extremely prevalent
neurological disorder in society that is characterized by a number of social and
behavioral deficits. The particular cause of ASD is unknown however continuous
research is being conducted to expand the current knowledge on the disorder. The
present research focuses on dendritic spine morphology and how this affects the
function of spines, the locations of excitatory synapses throughout a neurological
system. Abnormal morphologies and lengths of spines were observed in ASD cases
when compared to neurotypical cases implicating alterations in morphology as the
basis for altered neurological function. Brain tissue from both neurotypical cases
and ASD cases were examined in the present study and spine data was collected
from 45 cells per cases. The results of this study did show significant differences
between the two types of cases and implicated a high proportion of immature and
underdeveloped spines in ASD neural networks. These results have a great impact
for the understanding of altered development associated with ASD and are in
accordance with previous ASD studies gaining even further significance.
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In Copyright(All Rights Reserved)